PROSPECTIVE FUTURES: THE AURELIA PROJECT

2018

Prospective Futures: The Aurelia Project was developed as part of the BIOTA series, IOTA Institute, as the first Faculty of Science bioart residency at Saint Mary's University.

The project investigated the ecological afterlives of Nova Scotia's legacy gold mine tailings through a combination of environmental science, bioart, and site-responsive ritual practice. Focusing on landscapes contaminated by historical mining activities, the work explored the potential of the bacterium Cupriavidus metallidurans as an agent of environmental remediation. WhiteFeather conducted independent laboratory research with C. metallidurans, introducing this bacterium known for its ability to metabolize toxic metals, reduce mercury compounds through mercuric reductase activity, and produce microscopic deposits of elemental gold.

In parallel, Environmental Studies Honours student Brittany Hill, under the supervision of Dr. Campbell and mentorship from WhiteFeather, investigated goldenrod ecotoxicology, in-situ phytoremediation strategies, and natural dyeing. The project further engaged questions of cultural ecology through consultation with Roger Lewis, Curator of Ethnology at the Nova Scotia Museum, regarding Mi'kmaq relationships to land, history, and environmental stewardship.

WhiteFeather's intention was not simply to remediate a contaminated site but to stage a ritual offering of gold-producing microbes to a poisoned landscape. Conceived as both symbolic gesture and speculative ecological action, the work asked whether bacterial recolonization might function as remediation, renewal, and a response to the ongoing environmental legacies of extractive industry.

At the centre of the project was a proposed intervention: the burial of a goldenrod-dyed small cloth bundle containing the contaminated soil from a former gold mine tailings site that had been inoculated with living C. metallidurans. The live microbial intervention was ultimately not permitted. In its place, a witnessed performative enactment was carried out at the site, transforming the project's focus toward the politics of permission, containment, and environmental governance.

The contradiction of developing a project then not permitted became central to the work, exposing the institutional and regulatory frameworks that determine which forms of ecological intervention are considered acceptable, even within environments already rendered hazardous by industrial contamination. The project also exposed tensions surrounding disciplinary legitimacy. While the microbial intervention had not been permitted, related scientific investigations into bacterial remediation of Nova Scotia gold mine tailings were subsequently pursued within the institution. The juxtaposition raises questions about how closely related ideas may be evaluated differently depending upon the disciplinary identity of the person proposing them.

The resulting work includes an 8-minute video incorporating field documentation, archival audio from the Nova Scotia Archives, and interviews recorded by the artist, alongside scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imagery and anaglyph 3D micrographs of Cupriavidus metallidurans produced by Hunter during laboratory research. Together, these elements examine the entangled relationships between contamination, extraction, remediation, and microbial agency within landscapes marked by industrial toxicity.

The project was developed in K'jipuktuk, Mi'kma'ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq Nation.

WhiteFeather was hosted by Senior Research Fellow in Environmental Science, Dr. Linda Campbell.

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Video: [00:08:00], single-channel digital video. High res video available for screening upon request.

Selected screenings and exhibitions: Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University Art Bar + Projects; STEMfest 2018, Halifax Convention Centre; and in Space Grey (2021), a curated online exhibition presented by Knot Project Space and the Digital Arts Resource Centre, Ottawa.

The project was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Saint Mary's University, and IOTA Institute.